Chitin-Artist Oloth

Oloth grew decorative carapace for hive-cathedrals and for aristocrats' personal ships, and was the youngest chitin-artist ever raised to the Pearl Atelier. They held the seat fifteen years. Then they grew a hull for themselves.

That was the offense. The Atelier works for clients. It does not work for the artist's own use. The council called the Iridescent Bough unapproved, indulgent, and individualist, and asked that it be rendered back to seed-mass. Oloth refused. They were not exiled. The Collective rarely exiles a useful caste. They were dismissed from the Atelier and handed a fleet command they had not requested. The Bough has been technically a warship for thirty years. Its panels shift through the spectrum in a fight, which does nothing useful and is devastating to look at. Oloth will fight when the fight puts the right witnesses in front of the hull.